Psychopathologie du Diable

Douyon, Emerson

doi:10.2307/165351

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“…Kolb, 1973, p. 4;Millon, 1969, p. 5;Kuhn, 1970, ch. It could even be, as Douyon (1968) suggests, that man has a need to postulate the existence of the 'devil' to counter-balance the metaphysical postulate of God, but that important philosophical and religious question has yet to be resolved by empirical investigation. Instead it should be recognized, if not accepted, that modern man still carries a legacy of superstition and belief about the causes and cures of mental illness.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Possession or Dispossession?

Taylor¹

1975

The Expository Times

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object: Does this mean thatinstead of sticking faithfully to the once and for always delivered Gospel truthwe are roaming enthusiastically in all directions, according to our taste and temperament? Certainly there are people who understand ecumenical fellowship like this. The World Council does not understand itself like this. The World Council says yes to the debate, the battlenot about the truthbut towards the truth. Peter and Paul did not refrain from openly debating their basically different missionary approaches. The attentive Bible reader will soon realize that the contradictions in the New Testament cannot be solved logically. The truth of the Bible cannot be formulated in a rational and logical formula. But the fact that something is not logical does not mean that it is not true. Or was the war in Vietnam logical?If then the common faith in the Church and between the churches cannot be articulated in logical formulas, how then should the unity of Christians be made visible'? It is here that the independent churches from the Third World can show us alterna-tive solutions. They express their common creed not in confessions (be they from Frankfurt, Barmen or Westminster), but in stories and testimonies; not in liturgical litanies, but in new spontaneously created songs; not in theses, but in jokes; not in systematic theologies, but in dances. Their forms of expression are nearer to the Biblical ones than ours. We Europeans have taken a one-sided stand for Paul's argumentative approach and have neglected the style of the other Biblical writers. The independent Christians from the Third World tell us stories, they celebrate, dance, eat, sing, work, laugh and pray together. Only afterwards do they try the interpretative reflection. And from them we will have to learn that the right doctrine is not primarily judged on the confessions of the past, but on their power to be understood, on their communicability to the Christians and the world. What does it help to win the whole world of thinking and lose the soul of communication'? What does it help to have a common confession, which cannot be communicated because only a few specialists understand it'? 16 The quotation is from R.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Possession or Dispossession?

Taylor¹

1975

The Expository Times

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La transe vaudouesque : un syndrome de déviance psycho-culturelle

Douyon¹

2006

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SPIRIT POSSESSION: A PSYCHO-CULTURAL SYNDROME OF DEVIANT BEHAVIOUR The Voodoo trance represents the principal aspect of deviant behaviour among coloured people. This tricky phenomenon, always considered a challenge to any scientific explanation, was subjected to an experimental analysis. We wanted to find out what the trance performers have in common and to check whether a typical psychological structure could be associated with their deviant behaviour. The sample included forty-four subjects divided into three categories: a) a ritual group, b) a non-ritual group, c) a control group. No male subject was used because very few men are ever possessed by spirits. Every subject was submitted to a preliminary medical check-up (physical, neurological and laboratory tests), and to a series of psychological examinations (Raven, Goldstein-Scheerer, Sacks, Rorschach, autobiographical and personality questionnaires). The findings of the neurologist, the pathologist and the laboratory were completely negative as far as somatic predisposition to trance was concerned. But evidence of significant differences between the experimental and the control groups was demonstrated on the basis of personality tests and autobiographical questionnaires. Spirit possession, to be induced, requires not only specific conditioning experiences, but also a disturbed, anxious and depressed personality. The non-ritual form does not imply a higher degree of pathology. An intimate relationship between possession, states of depression and suicide has been indicated. The trance seems to be the only alternative for the neutralization of hostile feelings, either directed to the self or to others. The inhibitory effect of possession could finally prove to be a factor in reducing criminality in Haiti.

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Psychopathologie du Diable

Cited by 2 publications

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Possession or Dispossession?

Possession or Dispossession?

La transe vaudouesque : un syndrome de déviance psycho-culturelle

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